Cut Labor Costs with Zebra’s Fixed-Mounted Scanners
The ongoing labor shortages in the manufacturing industry is a problem that’s not going away anytime soon. To meet the growing demands, businesses are looking for manufacturing labor shortage solutions to help them achieve smoother workflows and improved performances with less labor.
However, even with enough workers, there’s constant pressure to boost efficiency and productivity in critical production and distribution processes.
Fortunately, technology and automation offer us solutions to address both of these challenges. And with the increasing number of workers about to retire, businesses need to embrace change to meet current production goals and attract new talent.
One of the strategies manufacturers and warehouses can adopt to minimize the consequences of labor shortage is switching from handheld to Zebra’s fixed-mounted scanners.
Zebra’s fixed industrial scanners can be used for scanning and capturing barcodes and direct part marks (DPMs). They provide superior performance to track and trace items from production to distribution automatically.
The Benefits of Fixed-Mounted Scanners for Manufacturing Labor Shortage
At Tensor ID, our team has offered manufacturing labor shortage solutions to various organizations. By switching from handheld to fixed-mounted scanners, they’ve been able to increase in throughput with a smaller workforce.
Below we’ve listed the benefits that Zebra’s fixed-mounted scanners can bring to the manufacturing and warehousing industry.
1. High Speed
Speed is a mark of efficiency in product manufacturing and the supply chain. Ensuring fast product manufacturing and delivery will increase customer satisfaction and keep you ahead of your competition. Zebra’s fixed-mounted scanners deliver fast scanning.
As an example, many of our customers are medical device manufacturers who previously used handheld barcode scanners at different workstations. They would use the scanners to read labels and track medical devices in their production operations.
However, manual scans can be slow, difficult, and cumbersome when dealing with DPMs, dot matrix codes, tiny data, or small-sized medical devices. Workers may have to pick up and handle the devices as well as switch back and forth between scanning and doing value-added work.
The right built-in and external lighting can automate the entire process. You can create a conveyor-based workflow where products don’t need to be manually scanned, resulting in faster and more accurate reading.
Is your barcode printed on paper, etched into a product, or displayed on a mobile phone screen? Installing Zebra’s fixed-mounted scanners at both ends of a workstation can automatically capture barcodes and data as products arrive and leave each station.
The scanners’ high-quality processors deliver extraordinary scanning speed regardless of the type of the barcode. Workers can make two scans without pausing between them, contributing to the increase in speed, productivity, and delivery.
2. Improved Accuracy
Due to their compact size and scanning capabilities, fixed-mounted scanners can ensure accurate scanning of small items and tiny barcodes. This is why they are suitable for fast-paced environments such as space-constrained manufacturing cells, airport gates, or point of sale systems.
When you’re working with small medical devices such as pacemakers, you’re dealing with small laser-etched codes and data marks. The placement and lighting are so tricky that handheld readers can’t scan them reliably enough. Zebra’s fixed-mounted scanners can facilitate the process without needing to manually handle the devices.
Similarly, we’ve worked with many electronics manufacturers. As part of their operation procedure, printed circuit boards (PCBs) have to be handled and presented to a scanner to capture tiny barcodes. And although many handheld barcode scanners have hands-free modes, they don’t read small barcodes efficiently.
3. Hands-Free Convenience
Warehouse workers can benefit significantly from hands-free technology. In freeing up both hands, workers don’t need to switch between tools and orders. This improves their physical mobility, allowing them to complete more tasks.
Zebra Technologies has worked with warehouses to develop an overhead fixed scanning solution for shipping areas. Instead of workers having to juggle between handheld scanners and multiple barcodes, the overhead fixed-mounted scanner can capture data hands-free.
Workers can simply rotate the product box at the shipping station, where overhead scanners would automatically capture and parse the right barcodes. This would then validate and send the data to the shipping system as required.
In a preliminary test, warehouses found that workers could suddenly process ten packages per minute rather than just six! This whopping difference added up to hundreds more packages scanned per worker per day, a significant breakthrough in labor-saving and cost-saving efficiency.
4. Significant Savings
Zebra’s fixed-mounted scanners designs are robust. Clients no longer need to worry about devices dropping and breaking on their shop floor. Not only do you benefit from increased throughput with less labor, but you also significantly save on your hardware maintenance and replacement costs.
This means that despite having a higher up-front cost than handheld scanners, fixed-mounted scanners are a superior investment in the long term. You may have to pay more initially to deploy the solution, but you’ll save more in time, labor, and overall efficiency. And because the interface is so intuitive, you’re virtually eliminating charges associated with training.
Moreover, Zebra’s fixed-mounted scanners can scan any barcode, including 1D, 2D, and direct part marks is a unique advantage. It means that the device doesn’t lack functionalities, delivering an unmatched return on your initial automation investment.
Implement Fixed-Mounted Scanners with Zebra and Tensor ID To Combat Labor Shortage
Innovative strategies, such as Zebra’s fixed-mounted scanners can offer effective manufacturing labor shortage solutions. They can help keep employees engaged while keeping your business operating smoothly.
Are you struggling with labor shortages? Or are you under pressure to automate more processes to boost efficiency and throughput?
At Tensor ID, we take the time to understand your existing operations. We recommend the most advanced fixed-mounted barcode scanner solutions for high-speed, conveyor-based barcode reading, and product verification based on your business goals.
Contact our team at Tensor ID to schedule a consultation. We’d be happy to talk about your current operations and determine where fixed-mounted scanners can be deployed so that you achieve your desired ROI.
